Changing the Rules (Richter Book 1)(80)

“Wouldn’t the head of the math department have access to the tutor need and tutor pool on his own computer? At least for the students at his school?”

Claire stopped picking the grass.

“Aren’t you our resident hacker?” Cooper turned his head, his eyes collided with hers. “Sometimes to steal the car, all you have to do is ask for the keys.”

Those tears were gone. “I want to kiss you so hard right now,” she said, smiling.

Cooper settled with helping her off the grass and a hug.

They walked over to Bennett together.

“Hey, Coach?”

Bennett turned around. “You all right?”

Claire looked at the ground and talked slow even though Cooper saw her fingers twitching. “I’m better. I just need to go . . . I need a few minutes.”

“Of course.”

“I forgot something in the desk where I was grading papers. Mind if I go get it?”

Bennett shook his head, pulled the keys from his pocket, and singled out the right one. “Lock up when you leave.”

“Thanks.”

Cooper watched her run off.

“Is Claire okay, Coach?” The relay team had moved in when Claire left.

“She’s fine.”

“What’s wrong?” Chelsea asked.

Cooper didn’t respond.

Leah, who was sporting crutches, said, “I heard Sean Fisher asked her to prom and she turned him down.”

Cooper bit his lip until actual pain to keep from laughing.



Claire and Jax sat in their Tarzana house with a situation board of their own.

Aunt Sasha had left the decoy house and Claire hadn’t returned.

The rest of the team was at headquarters or out in the field.

“The mail location in the strip mall is owned by an Aram Aghassian. He owns three of these types of stores. Two in LA, one in Orange County. They rent out mailboxes, send post through all the major carriers, have a notary service, passport photos, and sell all the things you need to send Nana a package on her birthday.” Isaac was the one reporting.

Claire and Jax had him on speaker.

Jax was typing in names on her computer and putting faces to them. Between the two of them, they had identified several pairs in less than an hour. Finally, Claire felt like they were getting somewhere.

“Any link to Milo?”

“Only through Brian and Gorge. However, after photographing several of their patrons, it’s safe to say this location has an unusual number of customers that have spent time in jail. The security cameras are visible in the usual locations, front door, back door, and register. Typical alarm system, but we can’t locate a monitoring service.” Isaac stopped talking.

Claire stared at a picture of one of the juniors at her school. “That should give Detective Warren more than enough to obtain a search warrant.”

“We’ll have our own knowledge of what they’re hiding before we waste anyone’s time,” Neil said.

“I wish I could be on that detail,” Claire said, more to Jax than the team. Running around in the dark wearing spandex and breaking into places sounded like a lot more fun than a giant jigsaw puzzle of high school kids.

“Not this time, Yearling.” Just hearing Cooper’s voice made her smile.

Jax shoved her aside with a grin. You have it bad. She mouthed the words but they were easy to read.

“Does that mean you’re going and playing Spider-Man?”

“Without the tights.”

Claire laughed.

“Milo Gusev does have links to the Sobol family, though he is not blood. Gusev has a lot of nephews. They come to America for a semester abroad. Last year he housed Ivan Zahbin during his junior year. The year before that was a niece. He has been on ‘guardian of a minor’ papers at Bremerton for the third year in a row.”

Jax had stopped typing and looked at Claire. “That would make sense of how Russell reacted today. I finally intercepted him in the parking lot. He didn’t have a single interest in my fake ID. Suggested I call Milo, which I did. But he didn’t answer.”

“Does Russell know what’s going on?” Cooper asked.

“He knows about the fake IDs, but beyond that? Who knows? He can’t be completely oblivious,” Jax reported.

“But he’s seventeen. A minor, and Milo is harboring that age group.” Lars had a point.

“What about Tony’s car?” Claire asked, having heard more about that when she’d talked to Cooper on her way home from school.

“Registered to Tony Mazzeo. The car was bought a little over a year ago. Right at the time Tony was a senior at Auburn High. The registered address is an apartment complex. Since the name on the mailbox is Chen, he has either since moved, or he was never there. Which would line up with him being an undercover cop,” Cooper told them.

“So we have two undercover cops. One working the teacher level, Eastman, and one working the student level, Tony. Boy, doesn’t that sound familiar.” Claire summarized the situation as she saw it. “I wish we could flush one of them out.”

“We’re not flushing anything until the feds are there and everyone is in custody. One leak before we’re ready to roll and someone in the chain gets a tip . . .” Neil didn’t have to finish his sentence. They all understood the consequences.